Conejo trustee announces she won't seek another term on school board

Longtime Conejo Valley Unified School District trustee Betsy Connolly announced Tuesday she would not seek another term in 2020.

The announcement came during a discussion about the district's transition to trustee area elections, a decision the board made after it received a demand letter stating if the district did not make the switch it would be opening itself up to litigation. A demographer was present Tuesday at the public school board meeting to listen to feedback about proposed maps that divide the city into trustee areas.

"I'm not planning to run again in two years," Connolly told The Star Wednesday. "I could see from some of the comments surrounding Mrs. Goldberg and I in the same trustee area and Mrs. Goldberg and Mrs. Fitzgerald in the same area, there were members of the public concerned about that. I'm not going to run for another term, no one should be worried about keeping my neighborhood out of Mrs. Goldberg's trustee area."

The district has several proposed maps, each carving the Conejo Valley into five districts. The scenarios all essentially have one trustee area in Newbury Park, another in the Westlake area, another in the central portion of the city, one consisting of the Wildwood and Lynn Ranch areas and another made up of Lang Ranch and some neighboring areas.

The first two scenarios put new trustees Cindy Goldberg and Jenny Fitzgerald in the same trustee area, the area around Lang Ranch stretching over to Thousand Oaks High School. Both are up for re-election in 2022.

The third scenario puts Goldberg in an area with current board president Connolly, who is currently the longest-serving trustee on the board.

"It will have be 12 years (on the board) when my term is up," Connolly told The Star. "Twelve years is a long time. I am a big believer in the natural evolution of leadership and that I don't think that organizations and agencies are well-served by having the same person at the helm for an extended period of time."

Connolly said while there's value to history and longevity, fresh ideas and perspectives are important.

"That means people who are holding public office need to consider when their experience and their savviness starts to be sort of outweighed by their comfort with the status quo and their respect for tradition and the past," Connolly said.

During the board discussion Tuesday night about the maps, trustee Sandee Everett asked if any of the other trustees or district representatives had input into the mapmaking process outside of board meetings. Connolly told The Star she interpreted that line of questioning to be an accusation that she was having private conversations with the demographer about the creation of the maps.

"Maybe that's not what she was talking about, but that's the only interpretation that in the end made any sense to me," Connolly said. "I don't know why she was under the impression that there was another secret mapmaking process or that somehow they weren't coming up with the maps on their own. ... The only thing that was clear was that Mrs. Everett felt that something underhanded was happening, I'm just not sure what that was, only that it involved maps."

"What I'm asking is how much input you've received on these maps that the public is unaware of," Everett said Tuesday night.

Superintendent Mark McLaughlin said from a staff perspective, the demographer received "zero" input.

"I'm not aware of any cabinet member or any other staff who has asked to tweak or adjust or do anything with these lines. This is pure public comment and board discussion," McLaughlin said. "Myself and staff are out of it 100 percent."

In the proposed maps the current residences of the trustees are included, to denote what sitting trustee would be in each area. This has been common practice in other Ventura County school board discussions on switching to district-based elections.

The switch to district-based elections is to allow minority voters to have more of a say in their elected officials, according to the California Voting Rights Act.

Connolly said it's challenging for the Conejo Valley to think about having five areas when "we are a three-cluster town."

"To ask us to divide ourselves into five equal population pieces is very, very difficult and goes against the way people in our city identify themselves," Connolly told The Star. "I feel a strong responsibility, and know my fellow board members do as well, to make sure that good is served by the creation of the areas."

The next public hearing on the maps is Feb. 5 at 6 p.m. during the next regularly scheduled school board meeting. More information on the maps and the timeline can be found on the district website at www.conejousd.org.